This invention relates to reinforced tubes and methods of forming reinforced tubes.
Medical tubes such as catheters and tracheal tubes can be reinforced, to make them more resistant to crushing, by incorporating a helical reinforcement in the form of a metal wire or a stiff plastic filament. In many cases, however, it is preferable for the tube not to be reinforced at the ends so that these are softer and less traumatic, and so that connection can be made to the tube more easily. There are various ways in which such tubes can be produced. The reinforcing wire or filament could be applied to the tubing only over those regions where reinforcement is required, leaving spaces between the reinforced regions so that the tubing can be cut between the reinforced regions to divide it into separate tubes each with an unreinforced end. Another arrangement, as described in GB 2043201, is to wind a reinforcing wire along the entire length of the tube and to remove the reinforcement by grinding from the regions where the reinforcement is not required. In this latter arrangement, an outer layer is applied on top of tube after removal of the reinforcement.